4 months

Wes is now 4 months old. Today we had his 4 month appointment, and his stats are as follows:

Weight: 13lbs 6ozs - 19th percentile

Height: 24.9 inches - 49th percentile

Head Circumference: 16.1 inches - 18th percentile

Diapers: Size 1/2, or 2, depending on brand

Clothes: 3-6 months

Wes did well at his appointment, though he didn't enjoy getting his shots. The pediatrician was suprised at how much he liked the oral medication. At this age Carly had a horrible gag reflex, and could not take oral meds without throwing up. Wes sucks them right down.

Carly got the swine flu vaxine while we were at Wes' appointment, so they got to hang out on the exam table together. She was pretty concerned when they started making him cry with those mean needles. Afterwards, though, she wanted some shots too when she saw Wes' cool bandaids. We skipped the shots and just let her have a bandaid.

Wes is still primarily breastfed, though the same thing that happened with Carly is happening again: my supply is struggling. We have had to supplement with formula a few times a week, mostly on the days Daddy is home and has run completely through the freezer stash of pumped milk. But I am determined to keep breastfeeding as much as possible, unlike with Carly, where I gave up and went entirely to formula once I got frustrated and was using half formula anyway. I am really hoping to avoid all of the ear infections/diaper rash/illnesses that Carly had her first winter as soon as she was off my milk. I am hoping that any amount of breastmilk will be helpful. So we shall see.

Wes is so fun. I love this age. This is the age of the epitome of "baby." He is rolly and pudgy and jabbery and smiley and delightful. Every time I come into his line of sight, his face just lights up and with the wide mouth smile. And the squealing! I don't remember Carly being such a squealer. But Wes can hardly smile without high-pitched squeaks coming forth.

Wes' hair is getting long enough that we can start putting it in a little mo-hawk. SO fun. He also has been hanging out a bit in the bouncer. The bouncer was Carly's favorite. She could hang there for hours! But Wes is only luke-warm so far. He'll be interested for maybe 5 minutes before he is crying to be held again. I thought it was that he loves sitting. But even in his bumbo he is counting the minutes until someone picks him up. I think he is just a cuddler. He loves nothing more than to just sit in one of our laps. And that is where he often is, because otherwise he is probably fussing, which is NOT fun to listen to.

As previously blogged, Wes is now getting very mobile. He can roll both ways, but prefers to roll from his back to his tummy. Then he'll hang out on his tummy for a while before demanding that we pick him up. Wes also loves reaching and touching things. Mostly my face. He loves to grab my nose, my mouth, my eyes. So we have to keep his razor sharp claws nice and short.

Wes also thinks Carly is hilarious. Not sure why. She mostly just abuses him. She can't get enough of him and her number one priority in life at the moment is to prevent him from ever sleeping. If he is napping, she will hover over him announcing "I wake Wesley up!" She also likes to 'bonk' him with whatever she is holding. I think this starts with her desire to show him things and share them with him, but she gets so excited she starts hammering him with them. So half of my day is spent telling Carly to not hit her brother. All the while, Wes is just smiling at her. If she is in the room, his eyes are on her.

We have started getting Wes used to rice cereal. Carly wasn't much interested at this age, and Wes hasn't been very enthusiastic either. But some part of me thinks that the rice cereal has got to be better for him than the formula. So today is day5 of those efforts. So far it has been a lot of crying, spitting, and gagging.

Wes is a great sleeper. He has is very consistent, and goes to bed between 10-11 every night. He is then down until early morning, betwee 4-5, when he wakes and nurses for 20 minutes. Then he is back asleep until 9-10 am. I am pretty lucky. If only Carly'd sleep that late in the morning! We have been trying to get Wes moved into the crib in Carly's room, but that has been a horrible failure so far. Remember how Carly does not want him to sleep? Yeah, bad combination. So we start him there and usually before he has woken up on his own to nurse, she has crawled into his crib "to see my Wesley." So we are a little unsure of where to go from here, because they are both so dang noisy and wake each other up. Not to mention that we don't want Carly in his crib.

I just can't believe how big my little guy has gotten. And how cute he has gotten! I am really looking forward to all the milestones in the near future, like the army crawl and those first chompers.

1 month2 months3 months4 months

Envy

Marshall was changing Wes' diaper a couple days ago, and Carly was helping. For the first time she really noticed a *notable difference* in anatomy. Daddy explained the differences between boys and girls to her. He ended by informing her "Daddy and Wes are boys, and Carly and Mommy are girls."

Carly thought about this for a second, got upset, and announced "I want to be a BOY too!"

Sorry Carly.

Horrible. Person.

Go watch this video on Marshall's blog.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. But I really don't think so.

I love to see the temple

Sunday, the lessons at church in our ward were about the temple. Some of it must have stuck with Carly because she told us after church that "we are going to go to the temple!" Marshall and I tossed around the idea of picnicking on the temple grounds, then fell into our after church naps. Carly came and found me after a while and inquired again if we were going to go see the temple. I told her that daddy was sleeping, so I didn't think he wanted to go anymore. She left and walked into the living room. I followed and watched as she climbed up on the couch, on top of sleeping Marshall, and said "Daddy, you wake and go to the temple with me. Please daddy. We go see temple."

Who could say no to that?

So we made some pasta and went to the temple for a picnic.
It was a lot of fun to spread out our blanket on the temple grounds and eat our dinner. It wasn't fancy, but the warm pasta was good on the cold fall afternoon.

Eventually Carly just started playing with the forks.

But Marshall improvised.Carly loved pointing out the pretty temple. After a while she wanted to go get a better look.

She and Daddy played a game of chase around the fountain.

Marshall told her to go knock on the door and say "trick-or-treat" to get some candy. She totally believed him. Guess I'm not the only gullible one in this family.

It was a wonderful afternoon.

The whole way home, Carly sang "I love to see the temple, I love to see the temple" over and over again. Marshall and I actually attended the temple this morning as a couple. When we got home, Carly greeted us at the door saying "okay, now I go to temple too!" What a good little influence we have!

Halloween

For Halloween this year, we decided to dress Carly as a lion. She makes a really cute lion.
And, I mean, come on....she has her own mane! It's just perfect!

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat at the church in the evening. We wanted to be on time since we were going to decorate there, and wanted to have a little time to get set up. Our decorations were minimal at best.

We showed up a couple minutes after 6pm, and we were the only car there. I thought we may have been a day late, but soon other's showed up. Not only did no one else in our ward care much about being on time, no one else really decorated. Seriously there were like 3 other decorated cars, so our minimal effort ended up looking pretty sweet!

Carly enjoyed doing the loop between all the cars, but after her 3rd time around to the same 10 cars, we figured that it was time to go walk to some houses.

Carly did really well going up to the houses. She walked up to the doors, knocked, said "trick-or-treat" when prompted, and said "thank you." At a couple houses she got a little greedy and would go for a handful of candy instead of one piece, but we tried to have her only take one, and put back the extras.

In general, Carly loves Halloween and ghosts and monsters, etc. We have shown her a lot of cute Halloween movies and have read stories, etc. She doesn't scare very easily. So it was pretty funny at one house when she got really freaked out. They had this animated ghost with blinking red eyes that went up and down right next to the door. With some reassurance and coaching we were able to get her to go up on the porch and knock on the door. When the gentleman answered, there was a witch's head that lit up and cackled right inside the door. Carly took one look and said "Daddy, let's run away!" Candy was not the objective at that point- self preservation took over. Good to know our daughter chooses "flight" over "fight." We may have to work on that!

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween as well!

Fall photos - take 2

Since Wes was less than excited to cooperate at the pumpkin patch, I decided to give it another try on Saturday. It was a little warmer, and not windy. So we just went out on the grass in front of our apartment. He was in a much better mood, and I think I got the fall themed shots I was hoping for.

I really love how they turned out! I think they are some of the best I have taken so far.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

I LOVE our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It gives me the opportunity to do my favorite "photo shoot" of the year. I plan outfits, hair, time of day we go. It's quite the production, and I get my favorite photos of the year. The trip is honestly more about the photos than any of the attractions.

Well this year our trip was an epic fail. We went and bought sweaters, picked a clear day, and drove to our local patch. Unfortunately it was cold. Not October cold- it was dead of winter cold. Shockingly cold. Immediate face numbing cold. We stepped out of the car in the parking lot and had to stiffle choice words, the shock was so immediate and surprising. And windy. Which made it colder. I strongly considered getting right back into the car and driving home, but Marshall knew how important those pictures were, and he knew what stress I had put the family through today in preparation, so we decided to at least try.

We found one location, took pictures of two poses, and then both kids fell completely apart.

Suprisingly, we actually got a few good pictures out of the 3 minutes worth of shooting.

When we finally made it back to the car and let our faces defrost, this was how Wes expressed his feelings about the torture we just put him through...

I'm excited for next year. Hopefully we don't wait until after snow has already fallen on the pumpkins.

Potty training

**Disclaimer: this post is about peepee and poopoo**

Yesterday we decided to take a different approach to potty training.

So far I have done a few different approaches, and none that worked. Mostly what I have tried has been Carly staying in her pull-ups, and then I ask her every 15 minutes if she'd like to use the potty, and actually make her sit and try every half hour. No success. Okay, very little success. I'll occasionally catch a peepee, but mostly she sits for the obligatory 5 minutes or so, then puts her diaper back on and promptly fills it.
We tried panties... same story.
I tried letting her lead (laying off).
Taking her in the bathroom when we use it.
Making her stay on the potty until she made peepees.
Potty in her room.
Potty in the living room.

It has all been horribly frustrating and really fruitless. She totally understand what we would like her to do. She has EVERY SINGLE readiness sign. She has potty books that she loves to read. She knows she gets candy if she makes potty. She makes her dolls and toys potty on their own make-shift potties. She doesn't like being dirty and will take her own diaper off (has been for months and months) and tell us she needs a new one.

She gets it. She is really stubborn.

Or maybe I have been trying the wrong approach...

Yesterday I tried the very last resort in potty training...the thing I have been avoiding out of sheer terror for the horrible mess it would involve: Bare Butt Potty Training. This is a method that many of the ladies in my ward use that they all swear by. You basically strip your child down and let them run naked for a few days. And there will be accidents, but you can try to direct your kiddo to the potty as soon as you see them start. And not having the feel of a diaper or of panties is supposed to help them know that they aren't meant to 'go' in them.
I have been hesitant because we are in a small, enclosed apartment. And getting a carpet cleaner up 3 flights of stairs is daunting.

Plus, lets just be honest: I don't do well with poop. I lose it when it comes to human defecation. Cannot handle it. Biggest trial as a mother, hands down, is the poop. Some people gag when other people throw up near them. I have that retching reaction when it comes to poop. Dis-gus-ting!

Yesterday morning I got Carly out of her room, and stripped her down. I put her potty chair in the middle of the living room. I got out the bribe candy. And I waited.

It went well!

She peepeed in the potty like 9 times between 9am and 2pm, and even did a big poopoo! I didn't have to direct her to the potty much at all. She just kept walking over, doing her business, and demanding her candy reward (1 smartie for peepee, 1 large candy of her choice for poopoo). We did have one little peepee accident in the kitchen, but it was when I was running water, so I can't really blame her.

This morning I got her out of her room and made a big deal of the potty again. I stripped her down and got the bribe candy out. Potty chair in the middle of the room. I was jazzed and ready. Ready to take this on again. Ready to be done with diapers. Ready to have a potty trained 2 year old.

Carly was not ready.

I asked her if she wanted to try the potty. "No," she said, "I want my diaper." I showed her the bribe candy. Talked about big girls. Put her on the potty. "I want my DIAPER! I NOT want candy!" She ran to her room, got a diaper and handed it to me.

We'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

She is really stubborn.

The art of sleeping

My kids have it mastered.